Apple’s first foray into social media is, unsurprisingly, not what you’d expect. The tech giant has famously shied away any type of social media presence, relying entirely on stark advertising heavy on white space, and word of mouth. Everyone speculates on new products and releases, lining up for a chance to be the first to buy a new gadget at full retail price. Unboxing videos rack up views for the brand, no marketing budget required. But now, Apple is on Instagram.

With new social media sites joining the internet ranks every day, existing sites have to evolve. A series of recent announcements from major players prove that for many, the key to consumers’ hearts lies in self-serve functionality and greater account flexibility.

Instagram added the ability for users to load up to 5 accounts into their app and seamlessly switch back and forth without logging in and out, thrilling social media managers everywhere.

When I first heard about an app being used at SXSW to identify panels where women are “under-represented,” I rolled my eyes. But as I thought more, I got angry. Not that there weren’t more women speakers, but that this app was reducing speakers to their gender.

The app allows you to share a graph on social media showing just what that panel is missing. Which, if you listen to the creators, is at least one pair of ovaries per panel. But what if there isn’t a qualified woman to speak on a certain topic, or she wasn’t available this week? Are we supposed to shame and ignore the men who earned a spot on the stage, or find a less qualified female just so there is at least one woman sharing the mic? I, for one, would rather sit in the audience and learn from a bunch of men than be out of my depth on stage just because of my gender.

We need to look deeper at the reason there are not as many women on certain panels and address the issues, if they exist, that are keeping them from speaking or being qualified to speak. Is there some sort of sexism at work? Perhaps in some cases, but not all. And fighting sexism with more of the same isn’t the answer. If you truly want to be “a community dedicated to ensuring that women are always part of the public dialogue” then build a community, not a bully.

It’s no secret that I love Disney. Disneyland, Disney movies, memories of Disney World growing up. It truly is the most wonderful place on earth. A place of magic. And part of that magic is the way you can enjoy and celebrate Disney in any way you choose. It’s become a huge part of our culture, and not just for kids. The recent “show your Disneyside” campaign was targeted directly at adults, making it cool for grownups to let loose and pose with characters at the parks. Disney has fun with their brand. And you should too!

Following Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, the social network began making changes to the photo app to bring it more in line with Facebook’s policies. One of their latest moves was to replace location data from Foursquare with their own system, Facebook check-ins. This doesn’t change much for the user within the Instagram app, but on Facebook itself it can have a big impact for both users and brands.

When a user tags their location in a photo and shares it to Facebook, it creates a link to that location’s Brand Page. If the brand allows users to post on their wall, it also displays the photo on the Page, in the “Posts By Others” section. The good news? Brands are getting a lot more organic presence in the Newsfeed and connecting with friends of fans. The bad news? They may not know the content of the photos being shared on their Page.

Take a look at a small sample of photos from TD Garden’s Page, where the Bruins play hockey. There’s nothing objectionable about these pictures, but we can’t be sure what may have been posted following their loss and since deleted by the Page Admin.

Even if every image posted is brand appropriate, there’s still a lot more content for Admins to monitor and moderate. Prepare your Page by visiting Edit Page>Edit Settings>Posting Ability/Post Visibility from the Admin section of your Page, shown below.

I’ve attempted to reach you, but I’ve had no success. Either you’ve been eaten by alligators or you’re just plain swamped!
If you have been eaten by alligators, my deepest sympathy goes out to your family members. Or one of the following is more likely to have happened. I hate to keep pestering you, but I’d like to express my desire to chat with you about advocate marketing. Please pick one response and let me know what our next step should be.
____ Yes, I’ve been eaten by alligators. Please send flowers.
____ No, I haven’t been eaten by alligators, but you may wish I had been, because I have decided I have no interest in <redacted>. Sorry, you’re sunk.
____ Yes, I have some interest, but here are my challenges:
____ Yes, I have some interest. Let’s get together. Here are a few times I have for an intro call:
____ You really need to be sending these emails to: ________________
____ Other:

Greatly appreciated!

<name redacted to protect the guilty>

First of all, this is the cheesiest email I’ve ever received. Second, it’s not even original cheese! He completely stole it. And finally, his previous correspondence didn’t offer any reason to get in touch with him or ask for a follow up. Not to mention that the funny tone he was striving for left me annoyed and more confused than before.

Sales is tough. I get it. But when you have to resort to misleading subject lines (“quick question for you..” ring a bell for anyone?) or lame jokes, you might want to rethink your strategy.

Your Best Tweets

Did I need to see the picture in question? No. Did the customer that was complaining and already dealing with the headache of a delayed flight? Certainly not. But we all need to grow up and move on. Because you know why and how that photo got tweeted? There is a real, live human being replying to people and humans make mistakes.

That mistake could have been a copy and paste error (totally possible, I’ve done it…just not with quite such disastrous results) or a technical glitch (less probable that their Twitter management system mistakenly grabbed it, but still possible) or just somebody having a bad day (we’ve all been there). The point is, they are all mistakes. Accidents. Unintended actions, or possibly a lapse of judgement. Which is going to happen when you have real people doing their jobs.

Think about it: would you rather receive an automated response that tells you nothing, or a human who replies and has a typo? If this was simply someone pasting the wrong URL, it’s not much more than a typo. It’s the media in question, the subject matter of the photo, that makes it a big deal. If the wrong URL led to the US Airways homepage instead of the complaint form, no one would be making a big deal.

Machines can’t do everything, and the price we pay for real-time, live customer service is the occasional human error.

About Me

I'm an interactive copywriter, social media marketing consultant, Facebook fanatic and advertising junkie living in Las Vegas. I love writing about anything and everything, but especially internet marketing, lip gloss and cool new stuff online. Also co-author of The Facebook Marketing Book from O'Reilly.